The Collector's Curse

【20】Gave It My Everything

II arrived in the kitchen just as Ulrik popped open a bottle of champagne. Before the flow of bubbles could make a mess, he aligned the neck with an awaiting flute and filled it. He noticed my approach and offered me an appreciative look as he took me in. I returned his flirtatious grin while I joined him. I took the glass he offered and brought it to my lips. Before he'd even filled the second glass, I had emptied mine.

His expression was full of concern as he gazed at the empty glass I brought forward for him to refill it. "Everything alright, sweetheart?"

"Yeah, just my dad."

"Is he alright?"

"He's a fool, is what he is."

When I brought the refilled glass to my lips, he stopped me with a raised finger and said, "Ah! Not so fast, Miss Connelly. We're toasting first."

He took a few seconds to come up with it, his eyes planted into mine with earnestness. "To us," he started, "to many more of these moments together. And to whatever awaits us in London."

The sincerity in his voice touched me deeply, and emotion gained in me once more. "To us," I echoed, clinking my glass with his. We each took a sip, never breaking the link of our gazes.

"So, tell me what's going on with your dad," he asked, setting his glass on the marble countertop.

"Nothing, he's just...a stubborn old fool."

Ulrik opened the oven and took a perfectly golden roast out of it, setting the sizzling dish on the awaiting mat. "How so?" he insisted.

"He never got over my mother, and it's becoming aggravating. He knew her for twenty months, and she's haunted him ever since."

Pondering for a moment, Ulrik didn't say a thing at first, taking out a butcher knife and a sharpener. With deft gestures that displayed a lot of practice, he dragged the blade against the tool quickly and efficiently.

"Some people will do that to you," he settled on saying. "They leave a mark on you that can never go away."

I pouted, displeased by his rational argument. It was like listening to my father all over again. "My dad's being an idiot about it, though. All that for a woman who doesn't deserve the time of day."

"You can't realize how much effect love can have on you until you experience it."

"Ugh, stop. You sound exactly like him."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"If you wanna get to fuck me within an inch of my life again, yeah, it's pretty bad."

He chuckled, shaking his head with a broad grin. "Noted."

The roast was on a cutting board now, and I watched as he cut perfectly even slices, his knife going through the tender meat as if it were butter.

"I just don't get why he'd let her have so much importance in his life. She isn't worth it."

"Before we continue, and so I know what you want from me, do you need to vent, do you want advice, or do you seek comfort?" he methodically asked.

I considered the question and decided, "I think I just want to vent for now."

He nodded once, getting another dish out of the oven—caramelized carrots. "Then vent away, kjære."

"Did I tell you he looked for her for years? To no avail, of course. I think he still does, now and then. But she disappeared off the face of the earth as if she never existed."

While Ulrik crafted our plates with gestures akin to great chefs, I told him the improbable story of my parents, how they'd lived together in secret and hidden the pregnancy from the world. Having a child out of wedlock was social suicide, so aside from a few legal documents, no one had known about me. So, to live their lives more freely, they'd decided to move to the US and get married. Before that could happen, though, she'd disappeared into the night, leaving him lost and confused.